The present invention relates, in general, to semiconductor crystal mounting beams and, more particularly, to a universal semiconductor crystal mounting beam for use during slicing of the crystal.
Presently, when semiconductor crystals are to be sliced into wafers, the crystal is mounted on a mounting beam. The crystal is mounted using a glue to hold it in place. The current mounting beams are designed with a concave portion having a radius that matches the radius of the crystal being mounted. An existing problem with the present mounting beam is that each mounting beam is compatible with only one size crystal, whereas, crystals come in several diameters (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 inches). This requires that a plurality of different size mounting beams be maintained in stock. In addition, because of the mating surfaces of the beam and the crystal, air voids can be left in the glue used to secure the crystal to the beam. These voids result in chips in the crystal adjacent the voids when the crystal is sliced.
In the process of slicing the crystals into wafers, the cutting blades will become dull or off-centered. Due to this problem, periodically the crystal must be removed from the saw and the blade must be dressed. The process of dressing the blade consists of running the saw blade on a dressing stick. The dressing stick is of a material, aluminum oxide or silicon carbide, which is harder that the saw blade and will sharpen the blade. The dressing stick is then removed and the crystal reinserted for further slicing. This process is very time consuming and causes a processing bottleneck.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor crystal mounting beam and method of slicing that overcomes the above deficiencies.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor crystal mounting beam that is universal in the size of crystal that may be mounted.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor crystal mounting beam and method of slicing that will reduce processing time.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor crystal mounting beam and method of slicing that will dress the saw blade during the slicing process.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor crystal mounting beam and method of slicing that is more economic to use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor crystal mounting beam that will allow void free attachment of the crystal to the mounting beam.
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention are provided by the semiconductor crystal mounting beam and method of slicing described herein.